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Wells Fargo Learns That Hiring Matters Too

Frank Kollman
Frank Kollman
10/22/2019
Agency Activity, Hiring Process
The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a conciliation agreement with Wells Fargo & Co. to settle allegations that it discriminated in hiring on the basis of sex and race.  The Office of Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) found that  Wells Fargo (a federal contractor) had discriminated against 2,066 female applicants for positions as online customer service representatives in Glen Allen, Virginia, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and 282...
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Tell Us About Bad Wage and Hour Investigators Says Head of Wage and Hour Division

Frank Kollman
Frank Kollman
10/21/2019
Agency Activity, Wage & Hour
The wage and hour laws are complicated, and rarely intuitive.  Technical violations of wage and hour laws are so common that no company can be absolutely positive that it is complying with all Department of Labor regulations, and the laws and regulations of states and local jurisdictions. In fact, these laws and regulations are so complicated that even the investigators hired to enforce them often interpret them incorrectly.  There are statutes,...
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NLRB Issues New Guidance on Social Media Policies

Eric Paltell
Eric Paltell
08/28/2019
Agency Activity, Labor Law, Social Media
The Office of the General Counsel to the NLRB recently released an Advice Memorandum shedding new light on the types of social media rules that are permissible in the wake of the Board’s December 2017 ruling in The Boeing Co, 365 NLRB No. 154 (12/17/17).  In that case, the Board set a new standard for evaluating the lawfulness of workplace rules under Section 7 of the NLRA. The Boeing standard weighs the importance of the employee’s exercise of...
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Department of Labor Opines That Gig Workers are Independent Contractors

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
05/03/2019
Agency Activity, Independent Contractors, Wage & Hour
On April 29, 2019, the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter (FLSA2019-6) stating that workers in the “gig” or “sharing” economy should be considered as independent contractors rather than employees.  This opinion letter, while limited to the specific facts of the anonymous company who requested it, has potentially wide-ranging consequences for the sharing economy as a whole. The DOL’s letter...
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Some Fun Facts About The EEOC's 2018 Charge Data

Randi Klein Hyatt
Randi Klein Hyatt
04/12/2019
Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination, Retaliation, Sexual Harassment
The EEOC released its 2018 charge statistics earlier this week.  Here are three key pieces of information to consider: Charge filings have decreased.  In 2018, the EEOC processed 76,418 charges, which represents more than a 9% decrease from 2017, a nearly 17% decrease from 2016, and a 23.5% decreased from the all-time high year of charge filings in 2010 (99,922 charges).   Because charge filings tend to flow with the relative strength of the...
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DOL Issues First FMLA Opinion Letter Of 2019

Randi Klein Hyatt
Randi Klein Hyatt
04/09/2019
Agency Activity, FMLA
In FMLA2019-1-A, the DOL advised that an employer cannot delay designating qualifying leave as FMLA, even if requested by the employee.  In particular, the DOL was asked if it is permissible to permit employees to exhaust first any non-FMLA leave prior to designating otherwise qualifying leave as FMLA. The DOL explained that an employer may not delay the designating qualifying leave as FMLA:  "Once an eligible employee communicates a need to take...
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DOL Proposes New Rules on Regular Rate Calculations

Eric Paltell
Eric Paltell
03/28/2019
Agency Activity, Wage & Hour
As anyone who has ever tried to properly calculate overtime can attest, the question of what compensation should properly be included in an employee's regular rate of pay is a vexing one.  On March 28, 2019, the United States Department of Labor proposed new rules that may add some clarity. The "regular rate" of pay is the base number that employers must multiply by 1.5 to determine how much overtime compensation is owed to an employee for hours...
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Two Important Wage-Related Updates

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
03/08/2019
Agency Activity, Legal Developments, Legislative Developments, Wage & Hour
This has been an action-packed week on the wage and hour frontier.  Two important decisions at the federal level are expected to significantly impact most employers going forward. Revised Overtime Rule First, on Thursday evening, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced its long-awaited proposed rule to update the salary exemption threshold under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) from its 2004 levels.  All employees who are paid a salary falling...
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Department of Labor Rescinds 80/20 Tip Rule

Randi Klein Hyatt
Randi Klein Hyatt
12/07/2018
Agency Activity, Wage & Hour
Employers in the restaurant industry are probably familiar with the tip credit, which, in general terms, allows an employer to claim a “credit” between what it pays tipped employees and the minimum wage.  The tips that such employees earn, and form the basis for the “credit,” are thought to make up for this gap. However, problems arise when tipped employees perform side work that is related, but not part of, the tipped work.  For example,...
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NLRB Union Protests Board Chair and GC

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
11/12/2018
Agency Activity, NLRB, Union Activity
The National Labor Relations Board, we are told, is supposed to be the neutral government agency that addresses workplace issues between unions and employers.   And I saw a pink unicorn on the way to work this morning.   It is not unusual to hear employers sometimes suggest they are skeptical of the Board’s supposed “neutral” stance.  A number of decisions coming from the NLRB during the Obama presidency could be characterized as...
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